Steppings?

<------------------ Noob

New to OCing in general, and have seen many things about steppings :
"post your steppings"
"CABNE"
"0546XPMW"
"CCB1E 0550 VPMW"
etc.

and have no clue whatsoever what it means, and info would be great

Thanks in advance

Its a code given to all processors. Its located directly on the processor and the only way you can retrieve it is from physically looking at it. Some steppings overclock better than other so thats why people worry about which ones they get so much.

Oh and WELCOME to the forums!!

well.. ill use my Venice's stepping codes as an example

ADA3000DAA4BP
LBBLE0516GPAW
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx(serial number)

AD = The brand, AX(D) = XP brand, AD = A64, OS = Opteron, SD = Sempron etc
A = Power limit
3000 = The "speed rating" of the cpu, in this case 3000+
D = Socket type. D = 939, A = 754
A = Default VCore, A = 1.4V
A = Maximum Temp at which it can safely operate at, A = 57C
4 = Amount of L2 cache on the CPU, 3 = 256k, 4 = 512k, 5 = 1MB
BP = Core type, BP = "Venice", BN = "San Diego", CG = "Newcastle"
---------------------------
LBBLE = The "Stepping", basically how the CPU was built, I dont know if anyones actually figured out what it is yet..
05 = Year 2005
16 = Week 16 (April 22-29)
G = Sunday (A-G or R-X being Monday-Sunday.)
P = Assembly site, in this case Penang in Malaysia
A = Batch number on that day(except if its "M"), in this case, the first.
W = Whether or not multiple wafer lots were used in assembling of the cpu batch (W = yes, if theres nothing there then = no)
---------------------------
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx(serial number) = it gives the exact details of the CPU, which is really only useful in identifying who it belongs to.. however, in the AXP days, if the start of the serial number on the "Legendary 1800+"'s (cpus with AXDA1800DLT3C, JIUHB stepping, ocd from 1.53->2.4ghz usually) was a "9" or "y" it meant it was from a particularly good batch of cpus. I dont know if this was confirmed or not, but people seemed to live by it

Hope this helps..

Careface*

EDIT: how rude of me, to the forums!

nice description, think i got some of it now, but on the other hand i'm even more confused when i look at my new 3700+, it has the following steppings

ADA3700DKA5CF
CCBWE 0542VPMW

anyone that can explain this one ?

Sure thing, the ADA3700D is the same as above, 3700+ A64 for socket 939.

K = 1.35VCore default
A = 57C max temp
CF = Venice, E6 revision ("old" venices are E3 revision, and have "BP" as their code)
-----------
CCBWE is a stepping, really not sure how youre supposed to figure it out lol
05 = year 2005
42 = week 42 (16-22 October)
V = Friday (R-X = monday->sunday)
P = Penang, Malaysia for where it was made
M = "Mixed" batches of cores used in assembly
W = multiple wafer lots

Hope this helps

Careface*

thanks for the info, but now i'm even more confused, here in little DK all stores says that the Tray version og 3700+ with CF is a E6 San Diego and the box version that have BW is Venice, tried cpu-z newest version but it coulden tell me what core it have

Aweseome, thanks very much, for the warm welcome and for the explanation

For A64, the following post in the sticky lists some stepping informations for the various cores.

Revisions and steppings (post 6)


Related posts:

940, 754, 939 CPU models and specifications (post 5)
How to read A64 part number for 940, 754, 939 (post 26)
How to identify the physical core of an A64 (post 86)

A64 overclocking result collection

Careface said:

CF = Venice, E6 revision ("old" venices are E3 revision, and have "BP" as their code)

Click to expand...

CF is not a Venice but a crippled Toledo, meaning it's practically a 1MB L2 San Diego. Besides, there is no 3700+ Venice.

Also, the 5-letter code on Hackerjacs proc (CCB1E) hints that there's a Toledo under the IHS.
2nd letter:
A = 1MB, Single core
B = 512kB, Single core
C = 2x1MB, Dual core
D = 2x512kB, Dual core


OPN suffixes:
BP = Venice E3
BW = Venice E6
BN = San Diego E4
BV = Manchester E4
CD = Toledo E6
CG = Manchester E4, crippled (similar to Venice)
CF = Toledo E6, crippled (similar to San Diego)

Oho! thanks for that.. i wasnt sure if there was a 3700+ venice or not lol.. i figured there would be, 3000+ @ 1.8, 3200 @ 2.0, 3500 @ 2.2, 3700 @ 2.4 (as theyd have 512k cache instead of the the 4000+'s 1mb, 2.4) guess i was wrong though thanks for the correction

on another note, do you know the other letters meanings of the stepping? ive not been able to find any info on them

Careface*

Hackerjac said:

thanks for the info, but now i'm even more confused, here in little DK all stores says that the Tray version og 3700+ with CF is a E6 San Diego and the box version that have BW is Venice, tried cpu-z newest version but it coulden tell me what core it have

Click to expand...

Try GCPUID in my sig.

Careface: 'A' for voltage or maxtemp = "Variable".

The Coolest said:

Try GCPUID in my sig.

Careface: 'A' for voltage or maxtemp = "Variable".

Click to expand...

Lol thanks, again a mistake on my part.. I just figured using your maxTcase proggy would tell me what it was (57C), guess not though.. I need to study more it seems

Careface*

Careface,
There's no official data available about the 5-letter code but fortunately some people (freecableguy and s7e9h3n) at XS have been looking into this.

Thread: AMD Stepping Information Decoded @ XS